Calgary flood 2013 sees Laureen Harper helping clean up city

The prime minister’s wife, who celebrated her 50th birthday on Sunday, reportedly put in a long day of work in and around Calgary. She helped clear a driveway of rubble, the Calgary Herald reports, “hauling heavy, dangerous items full of rusty nails into the backs of waiting garbage trucks,” assisting in cleaning up and dropping off food at the Morley reserve to Calgary’s west.

Her political clean-up crew included MPs Rob Anders, Deepak Obhrai, Joan Crockatt, and Rona Ambrose, as well as PMO staffer Veronica Gerson.

A city sanitation worker told the Herald “they’re good workers, that’s for sure.”

Rick Lauzon emerged from his sodden basement to see Ms. Harper helping out.

“Isn’t that the prime minister’s wife?” Lauzon asked.

“It’s pretty incredible that she’s here, and look at her work,” he said to the Herald. “Actually, I can’t believe the volunteers. Every day, complete strangers have helped us out.”

Ms. Harper, who was born in Turner Valley, to the southwest of Calgary, told the Herald she understood what those with flood-damaged homes are going through. At the age of 17, she lost her family home to a Christmas Day windstorm.

“The roof weighed seven tonnes and was blown away. People’s barbecues were found a mile away from their home. The next day it rained. We lost everything, so I understand how upsetting and unsettling it is. Your home is your safe place and when it’s torn from you, it’s devastating,” Ms. Harper said.